I could not care less whether Bill Ward is in this year’s Black Sabbath reunion. On a personal level I hope things work out for Bill — it definitely seems like he’s the party being “wronged” here — but the truth is that I give absolutely no fucks about this Black Sabbath reunion to begin with. None. I said as much back in October when rumors first started heating up, but I’ll say it again:

1. Ozzy’s body is so torn up from years of drug and alcohol abuse that he can barely move, and his voice is in the shitter. The rest of the guys ain’t exactly spring chickens either. Even back in 2005, Black Sabbath were boring as all fuck to watch live. Not worth the $100+ it’ll cost to see them play.
2. Any new Black Sabbath album will not be that good. I’m sorry, it just won’t. Adequate/stock Black Sabbath at best, completely irrelevant at worst. Absolutely not better than the Heaven and Hell album they released with Dio in ’08, which was decent.

Nevertheless, you people all seem to be whipped into a tizzy by this whole Bill Ward drama, so we’re going to keep reporting on it ’cause all we care about is getting LOTS OF HITS and generating mad cash to buy the finest bananas we can possibly find for the MetalSucks Mansion Monkeys. And so:

After yesterday’s ridiculous rumor that Sharon Osbourne “fired” Bill Ward, Sharon Osbourne responded last night via Twitter:

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Hey, so remember before all this petty Bill Ward drama erupted how his Black Sabbath bandmate Tony Iommi was diagnosed with fucking CANCER? During an interview which will air in full tonight on his new SiriusXM channel Ozzy’s Boneyard (Channel 38), Ozzy shared his personal thoughts on the matter. Listen to a few excerpts above, then listen to the interview in full at the times listed above. As usual, you can only understand about every third word out of Ozzy’s mouth, but it’s actually kind of refreshing to hear the old coot’s babbling voice after so long, and he’s obviously pulling for his buddy.

The other members of Black Sabbath (Ward excepted) have relocated the recording sessions of their new album with Rick Rubin to London to accommodate Iommi’s recovery. Wish him well.

-VN

[via Metal Injection]

Before reading any further, please note well: the following is a rumor only, and MetalSucks has not been able to substantiate it.

A site called MetalTalk.net is saying that they “have just been informed by a reliable source that Sharon Osbourne has fired Bill Ward.” They’re also claiming that this same source informs them that Tommy Clufetos from Ozzy’s solo band will be Ward’s replacement on Black Sabbath’s forthcoming summer shows.

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Just yesterday, Bill Ward released a statement in which he threatened to bow out of the recently announced new Black Sabbath album and world tour unless he was given “a ‘signable’ contract.” Now Black Sabbath have announced via their Facebook page that they are, indeed, proceeding without their now-once-again-former drummer:

We were saddened to hear yesterday via Facebook that Bill declined publicly to participate in our current Black Sabbath plans…we have no choice but to continue recording without him although our door is always open… We are still in the UK with Tony. Writing and recording the new album and on a roll… See you at Download!!!

- Tony, Ozzy and Geezer

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UPDATE, 2:06 pm: Reader Joe Siegler tells me that Ward didn’t “hold out” in ’97 — he was never asked to re-join the band. I apologize for my lapse in knowledge of Sabbath reunion lore. If he really wasn’t asked in 1997, that makes this whole thing all the more dramatic and dispiriting. Original story follows below…

Hope you weren’t too excited about Bill Ward participating in the upcoming Black Sabbath reunion.

Ward has always been the hold-out with these reunions. He didn’t participate when the band got back together for Ozzfest in ’97 (although by 1998, he had indeed rejoing the band), and he wasn’t a part of Heaven & Hell, the Dio-era Sabbath reunion, either. Now, according to a statement on his website, he may not be part of the Sabbath’s recently announced new album and tour, either:

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It will be romantic, they swear.

From Noisecreep:

“Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne, along with ‘The Late Show With David Letterman’ announcer Alan Kalter, have teamed up with CBS and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital to create the CBS Cares Colonoscopy Sweepstakes. One lucky person will win a colonoscopy, along with a trip to New York City, including airfare, hotel and $500 spending cash.”

I know that colonoscopies are a really important aspect of modern healthcare and I don’t mean to make light of something so serious, but… I mean, come ON. This HAS to be the weirdest contest in the history of ever, right? Like, can you imagine winning this contest and being on the plane, and making friendly chit-chat with the person in the seat next to you?

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Gus G.’s Firewind, one of the like three power metal(ish) bands that I actually like, are gonna release a new album later this year, Few Against Many. Which means they’ve now performed some new tracks live. Which means the performances of those tracks have been filmed on someone’s cell phone. Which means you can check them out right now.

I’ve heard some good early buzz about the currently-being-completed Few Against Many, and these songs certainly pique my interest. Check ‘em out and see what you think:

“Wall of Sound”

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So the young ‘uns might not remember this, but back in 1995, following the release of Ozzmosis, Zakk Wylde actually had to bow out of Ozzy Osbourne’s touring group. The reason? ‘Cause Mr. Wylde was busy waiting to see if he got the second guitarist spot in the then-biggest band in the world, Guns N’ Roses. GN’R's original rhythm guitarist, Izzy Stradlin, had quit in ’91, and his replacement, Gilby Clarke, was fired in ’94; the band was having a hard time filling the slot (an issue which apparently ended up being a major factor in Slash’s eventual decision to leave the group), and Axl Rose got it into his head that having a second lead guitarist would be a great idea, and would “push” the two axe slingers to challenge themselves in new and interesting ways (a theory Rose continues to test in his current version of Guns). In hindsight, this was probably a terrible idea, but at the time, when word got out that Wylde was jamming with GN’R, everyone was all excited by the possibility.

I’m not quite sure why it didn’t work out between Wylde and GN’R (Rose says that Slash refused to share the spotlight with a second lead guitarist, Slash says that Wylde was too impatient to wait for Rose to get his shit together), but last week fans got a kinda-sorta glimpse of a what a Wylde GN’R might have sounded like when the guitarist, whose Black Label Society was opening for Rose and company, hopped up on stage with the band to perform a cover of AC/DC’s “Whole Lotta Rosie.” Metal Insider has found multiple fan-filmed videos of the event, one of which I’ve re-posted below; it’s actually pretty amazing, ’cause Wylde doesn’t use a single guitar squeal the entire time. I wonder if that was one of Rose’s conditions when allowing him to perform with GN’R?

And since we’re on the topic of Zakk Wylde almost joining Guns N’ Roses in the mid-90s, here’s a video of Wylde and Slash jamming on Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Child” from roughly that same time period. Hearing the way these two trade licks and interact with one another might actually give you a better sense of how GN’R could have sounded had Wylde actually ended up in the band. Enjoy:

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Italy-based label Frontiers Records released two of 2011′s awesomest glam metal records, Sebastian Bach’s surprising Kicking And Screaming and Forevermore by Whitesnake, one of this year’s very very awesomest (read here). So Frontiers was already hot when two Tuesdays ago Beggars & Thieves’ new record We Are The Brokenhearted came out. The jam I heard was sweet and holy fucking shit that’s Jake E. Lee doing the solo and and AND appearing in the funny “Right Now”-style video (above at 2:17, with cameos from members of Slaughter, King Kobra, Kiss, Keel, plus a lady with huge jammerz and Kevin Churko).

Lee’s appearance in the video falls in line with recent rumors of an imminent-ish return from near-invisibility with a new project, which is an exciting prospect turned mega-exciting by his great performance on this B&T song and his seeming good health. I’m always begging anybody who has ever been in Lee’s proximity for contact info and it looks like the B&T team is next on my list. Which is a relief in a way cuz I was contemplating asking Paul Gilbert to introduce me to his Racer X bandmate and onetime Badlands drummer Jeff Martin in hope that he has Lee’s number. That sounds like a longshot but it’s not even close to my most desperate gambit so far for an interview with the dude. Jake CALL ME.

-ADF

Get Beggars & Thieves’ new album We Are The Brokenhearted here.

I have finally reached the point where I can’t even muster outrage or disappointment over Zakk Wylde’s career choices. Twenty years ago, I probably would have lept from an airplane without a ‘chute if the dude had asked me to. Ten years ago, if he had announced that he was doing a guest spot on, say, a new Dope record, I would have wept hot, burning tears of anger and betrayal. Now, it’s been announced that he’ll contribute a solo to the new EP by Black Veil Brides — a band whose music ranks somewhere in-between anal warts and sensitivity training with Phil Labonte on the list of “Things I Hope to Avoid” — and I can’t even muster a shrug. Like, I tried to shrug, and my shoulder muscles were all, “Dude, don’t even waste the energy.” And so here I sit, shrugless.

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After months of “speculation” (by which I mean we all knew this was happening, but no one would officially confirm it), Black Sabbath announced today at a press conference at LA’s Whiskey A-Go-Go — where they played their first American show back in 1970 – that they are, indeed, reuniting for both a world tour and a new album… which will be produced by Rick Rubin. Rubin says the band has written half the album already, and that recording will begin in early 2012.

The above video montage, also heralding the reunion, appeared on the band’s website at 11:11 am PST. The video also reveals that the band will be headlining this year’s Download Festival… so now we know who two of the headliners will be. I wonder if the only reason Metallica are playing the Black Album in its entirety is because of Black Sabbath? If so, that’s pretty silly. And it makes me wonder if AC/DC, doing all of Back in Black, will be the third headliner.

We know from Heaven and Hell that Tony Iommi still has some good riffs in him; now I guess we just have to wait and see if they can make this cool without Dio or what.

Debate in the comments section below.

-AR

I’m way pumped that Steel Panther’s Balls Out album broke the Top 40 for first-week sales. That is awesome and it brings reality one teeny notch closer to my dream of a Ozzfest-sized mega-glam festival curated by SPanther and friends. In my fantasyworld, the bill would mix glory-era acts that still rip (Cinderella, Kix, Winger), now-dormant underdogs from that time (Junkyard, Dangerous Toys, Love/Hate), super-special events (Ozzy, Zakk, Geezer, and Vinny play all of No Rest For The Wicked; the returns of Badlands, Blue Murder, and Bonham) and most vitally a bunch of great, young glam bands like Crazy Lixx, The Last Vegas, and Crashdiet. This historic fest would hail the genre’s redwoods and fertilize its saplings for tomorrow’s party metal forests. Um yeah. And absolutely, positively no Eddie Trunk LOL.

But for now, the reality is that Sweden’s brightest glam light Crashdiet is in Los Angeles to kick off a run of West Coast dates (info here). Fuckin’ A right they are. The Little Glam Metal Band That Could looks ready to party in hair metal Graceland (above, with beardo), so expect some big-boner performances this week. Let’s consider it dress rehearsal for Steel Panther and MetalSucks’ MEGA-BONER FEST L.A. 2015. See you there!

-ADF

Get awesome Crashdiet tourdates here and records here. 

When Some Kind of Monster came out, Jason Newsted suddenly surpassed Dave Mustaine to become #2 on the list of Most Popular Former Members of Metallica*, mostly because he made some pretty funny comments about how the whole Phil Towle/group therapy thing was bullshit — comments which, at the screening I attended, were met with rapturous applause. (The house was obviously packed with Metallica listeners.) Suddenly, everyone rather conviently forgot that Newsted was a willing participant in the Load albums, and he seemed like the cool dude who had jumped off a sinking ship before it was too late. And the fact that he was playing with Voivod didn’t hurt his case any, even if the fact that he was also playing with a certain aging Brit sorta did.

But then of course just a few years later Newsted was out of Voivod and in Rock Star Supernova, and his cred went down the drain just as fast as if he’d stuck around for St. Anger.

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Don’t fool yourselves by the constant he-said she-said back and forth between various Black Sabbath members: they will eventually get back together and tour, if not now then in the not-too-distant future. The latest fire-stoker involves Tony Iommi saying the band got together to rehearse… to which I say, big fucking deal.

I do not care about the umpteenth Black Sabbath reunion. They were extremely tired and old when I last saw them on Ozzfest ’05, meaning they’ll just be 7 years tireder and 7 years olderer if I choose to see them during their pending 2012 tour. No disrespect to their legacy; much, MUCH respect to this band’s profound influence upon all of metal. It’s just that enough is enough already. Stop beating the dead horse. I can think of a million ways I’d rather spend $80 (or more) + service fees than watching Ozzy hop around like a frog whilst spraying the audience with a water hose because it’s a gimmick that requires little to no movement.

Feel free to tell me why I’m wrong in the comments below.

-VN

For a while I’ve been trying to pitch an interview to former Ozzy guitarist Jake E. Lee. Of course, I want to ask him about replacing Randy Rhoads for Bark At The Moon (yay!) and The Ultimate Sin (okay!) albums. And I’ve heard that he’s assembling a new band, so we’d discuss that, too. But mostly, I plan to break my wrist from petting Lee’s ballz about Badlands, his post-Ozzy heavy rock band. Well, wait, I mean, my wrist would break from petting them so thoroughly, not from using great force to pet them. I don’t want Jake to fear for his ballz here.

Ahem But it’s not just that Badlands was awesome, but interesting too. Their debut album, which I’ve privately retitled Bonerlands, convenes a creative team of super-stud Lee (fresh from parting with Ozzy), Ray Gillen (short-term singer for late Black Sabbath and early Blue Murder, total stud), drummer Eric Singer (now of Kiss, then going big like an Appice), and producer Paul O’Neill (the mind behind Trans Siberian sn’Orchestra, Savatage’s Streets: A Rock Opera). Weird team, right? It’s unclear how much Lee would ever discuss with me, cuz Badlands ended pretty acrimoniously (onstage arguments) and then sadly (Gillen’s fatal illness). But for now, let’s click play on “Devil’s Stomp” (above) and you’re jamming! Jake call me!

-ADF

Photo by Clay Patrick McBride

Sebastian Bach’s new record is surprising and unsurprising. That is, no one who has witnessed the former Skid Row singer’s recent playdates with members of Asking Alexandria and Black Veil Brides could be shocked by Kicking And Screaming‘s slick, modern vibe. Plus, a clue was provided by each of Bach’s personnel moves, be it a 21-year old guitar prodigy, or a producer of tight radio rockers (Shinedown, Saliva) and lovable old guys (Iommi, David Lee Roth). And duh it’s 2011: For mainstream rock, the choice is big production or small potential. And there is nothing small about Sebastian Bach.

Anyway, those were my thoughts during the opening notes of Kicking And Screaming. But the album’s surprise element mounted with each song: He pulled it off! Yes, Bach is great at bright, pop-punkish hard rock throughout the totally lovable Kicking. Eventually it dawned on me that Bach might’ve been supplementing — not discarding — his OG fans via cavorting with scenebros, dissing of today’s Skid Row, and tabloid-friendly barroom antics. Via producer, boy wonder axeman, and his own snarling edge, his aim was a collection of jamz for both sensibilities and their overlap. Via classic Bach thrust and charm, Kicking is a Skid Row fan’s newest friend.

Last week, I spoke with Baz about Kicking And Screaming‘s creative team, singing high, being high, Steven Adler, John 5, Phil Varone, and tons more in an epic MetalSucks interview that crescendos from chill (excited new album chatter) to silly (an impromptu stoner giggle party) to rampage (invective against the Skid Row he never bargained for). Read and laugh!

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To help promote their upcoming tour, on October 11 Judas Priest will release The Chosen Few, their umpteenth career retrospective, and one which does not feature any new material. The Chosen Few does have a hook, though — I mean, beyond the fact that the band members appear on the cover only as silhouettes, I assume at least in part to downplay the fact that a certain key member is no longer in the group.

No, the hook  (and this is actually a neat idea) is that the band has let a lot of other celebrity musicians — including Ozzy, Lemmy, James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kerry King, Slash, and Vinnie Paul  – choose which songs would appear on the collection. And, yeah, it’s interesting to know that Zakk Wylde is way into “Grinder,” and and that Randy Blythe and David Coverdale might actually have something to talk about at a cocktail party, and that Joe Satriani likes his Priest heavier than I might have suspected.

But like I said, there’s no new material here, so I can’t quite imagine why anyone would want this album anyway. The coolest thing about The Chosen Few is seeing which dude chose which song, and you can do that after the jump. So, look, we just saved you ten bucks.

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When we first heard about William Shatner and Zakk Wylde’s cover of “Iron Man” in February, I made fun of The Shat for thinking that following direction would somehow increase the quality of Wylde’s performance:

“Finally, he’s dying… and this is like hell for him… he is dying in hell. Now, if that adds any character to what you’re playing… if it becomes more stark, more hell…”

Now that I’ve heard the song, though, I realize I owe Shatner a massive apology. This version of the Sabbath classic does, indeed, feel like dying in hell.

Revolver Mag debut William Shatner Iron man feat. Zakk Wylde by Cleopatra Records

I have no idea when the rest of the album will be released, but when I see the Four Horseman racing across the landscape, I’ll know to check iTunes.

-AR

Last week I wondered aloud how Trivium’s first-week showing for In Waves compared to the first weeks of their past albums, and my secret Soundscam correspondent came through once again. Here’s how their past three albums performed in their first weeks of release:

The Crusade (released October 8, 2006): 31,156
Shogun (released September 28, 2008): 23,577
In Waves: 20,635

A downward trajectory to be sure, but 20,000 is still quite an impressive number in this day and age. I wonder how Roadrunner Records views it?

Onto other matters: Chimaira, Attila and Revocation all had big debuts last week. Let’s take a look.

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Tony Iommi just posted the below message on his official website. It’s not exactly a denial that there’s no Sabbath reunion going on, but it is a denial that Iommi has confirmed the reunion, so, uh… yeah, I guess let’s see how this one plays out.

Here’s the statement:

“I’m saddened that a Birmingham journalist whom I trusted has chosen this point in time to take a conversation we had back in June and make it sound like we spoke yesterday about a Black Sabbath reunion.

“At the time I was supporting the Home of Metal exhibition and was merely speculating, shooting the breeze, on something all of us get asked constantly, ‘Are you getting back together?’

“Thanks to the internet it’s gone round the world as some sort of ‘official’ statement on my part, absolute nonsense.  I hope he’s enjoyed his moment of glory, he won’t have another at my expense.

“to my old pals, Ozzy, Geezer and Bill, sorry about this, I should have known better.

“All the best, Tony “

-AR

Thanks to Cody Daniels for the heads up.